Biography: Alain Fischer

Alain Fischer, MD, PhD

Dr Alain Fischer studied medicine, with a specialization in pediatrics, biochemistry, and pediatric immunology at the Université Paris Jussieu, where he received his medical and doctoral degrees in the same year. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the University College London, he started independent research in a unit of the National Health Institute of Medical Research (INSERM) at the Necker Hospital in Paris. Since 1991, he has been the director of an INSERM unit for “normal and pathological development of the immune system.”

Dr Fischer also serves as a professor of pediatric immunology at the Université Paris Descartes and as a professor at the Institut Universitaire de France. Since 1996, he has served as the director of the pediatric immunology department at the Necker Hospital.

Dr Fischer's main research interests are in gene therapy, genetics of immunological disorders, primary immunodeficiency diseases, and the development of the lymphoid system. Over the last 15 years, he and his colleagues have analyzed the mechanisms of hereditary diseases of the immune system.

In 2008, Dr Fischer received the INSERM “Grand Prix” for his career achievements. Dr Fischer has also been the recipient of the Halpern Prize in 1984, the Behring-Metchnikoff Prize in 1992, the Prix du Comité du Rayonnement français in 1994, the Jung Prize for Medicine in 1998, and the Louis Jeantet Prize for Medicine in 2001.Since 2002, Dr Fischer has been a member of the French Academy of Science and the European Molecular Biology Organization. He has been a member of the French National Ethical Committee and director of the French Program for Rare Disease Research.

Dr Fischer is the author of more than 490 scientific papers. He is an editor of the European Journal of Immunology, International Immunology, the EMBO Journal, Clinical and Experimental Immunology, the Annual Review of Immunology, and Science.